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Miles Hunt & Erica Nockalls are heading to Southampton on Saturday 17th October, supporting The Proclaimers at The Guildhall.  Brett Summers spoke to Miles recently about  his project with Erica and The Wonder Stuff.

You and Erica have been working together for a number of years now both as a duo and as part of The Wonder Stuff, I guess my first question is how did the two of you meet?

The Wonder Stuff were working at a studio in Stratford Upon Avon on the second of the more recent albums, 'Suspended By Stars' in 2005. It was agreed that we'd like to bring back the violin to our sound on that record, as we hadn't had any on the previous album, 'Escape From Rubbish Island'. Also when we had toured 'EFRI' we hadn't played any of our old songs that featured the violin & to be honest we were beginning to miss them. None of us were looking forward to the auditioning process & the guy that owned the studio in Stratford mentioned that he had seen a girl busking in town, he described her as looking like a 'scary Snow White'. After asking around we found out who she was & that she had a progressive metal band, based in Birmingham, called Fireswitch. We tracked her down & asked her to come to a gig we were doing in the Midlands so we could all meet & see if she was interested.

What were your first impressions of her? Were you right?

We met back stage at the gig in question & agreed for her to come over to the studio & play for us. I'd sent her a CD of three old TWS toons & half way through playing 'Circlesqure', acoustically, with her I knew she was the person for the job. She attacked the violin during the solo & that really impressed me. As for what we thought of each other.... I probably talked to much & she most likely wondered who the hell we were! She had only ever heard 'The Size of a Cow' by us and beyond that knew practically nothing of our history. It seems curious to think of those early times together now, not knowing each other, as we've spent pretty much everyday in each others company for the last three years now.

Your currently about to hit the road with The Proclaimers, how’s the tour preparation going?

The two of us have been gigging pretty solidly since April 2007, so there is no real 'preparation' for The Proclaimers tour, we just have to make sure we're playing the right songs, as the set will be much shorter than our usual 90 minutes. We're very much looking forward to doing the tour, Erica plays with The Proclaimers, has been doing on & off for the the last year or more, so it's not like we're all strangers.

The tour takes you all across the U.K. do you have any towns in particular you are looking forward to playing?

This would be based entirely on our favourite restaurants & hotels I'm afraid. Touring never really allows you to take in what a city has to offer, it's always been that way for me. I do love Bristol & I think I'm right in saying that I haven't been to Llandudno since I was a child, so I wonder what I will recognise there...?

In March this year you released your second album with Erica, “Catching More Than We Miss”, how was the recording/song writing process for that?

That album was a great project. When we did 'Not An Exit' together we were not really sure what we were heading towards. Originally it was just meant to be an acoustic session, but when we figured out that The Wonder Stuff's drummer, Andres Karu, could easily email us drum performances recorded at his studio in NYC we started getting a bit more adventurous. I do like that album, a lot, but I can hear an idea growing throughout it, as opposed to the record being a complete & confident piece of work. I think 'Catching...' is exactly that. We knew what we wanted to achieve from day one & knew how to go about getting it done. We wrote the whole thing together, which was slightly different to the previous album where I had begun most of the songwriting & then asked Erica what she had to add to those ideas. It was all written & recorded while we were still touring, and I was really pleased to get Erica singing on this record too.

What songs stand out for you on that album and why?

Probably 'Plans In The Sky'. Reason being that not only does Erica sing on that song, but we wrote the lyrics together too, which is unusual for me to do. In the past I've always done that alone, barring the company of a bottle of booze or two. 'Fill Her Up & Foot Down' also stands out for me, I guess it's the nearest bit of old school Wonder Stuff writing that I've done in a while, it was nice to find that I still had it in me! 'Stay Scared, Stay Tuned' & 'The Rogue's Biography' are perhaps my favourites though, the sit together well stylistically & I think I did a good job on two sets of lyrics that were essentially influenced by the same subject.

Previously to “Catching More Than We Miss” you released “Not An Exit” in April 2007. This was your first album together. How did this differ from your previous solo releases?

As I mentioned earlier, 'Not An Exit' was an experiment. Both in how to record an album in two separate locations & sending music files by email & that it was mine & Erica's first project together, without physically being with the rest of the band. I returned to 'home recording' also. The first time I'd done that was with my first solo record 'Hairy On The Inside', in 1999, which I recorded partly at my house & partly at Vic Reeves old house in Kent - mine had a small flood, he kindly offered to put be up for a month or so. Until 'Not An Exit' in 2007 I had gone back to the more traditionally studio based recording, which is20fine if you can find the right engineer & afford the hourly rate. Recording at home gave us time to ponder what we were trying to achieve without all the clock watching. In saying that, we wrote & recorded the whole record in under four weeks.

You both seem to be keeping very busy on a global scale. Can you just tell us what you have been up to over the last year?

Y'aint wong! The last 12 months have been the busiest & I'm happy to say, the most prolific period of my life. In October & November 2008 the two of us toured the USA with Wayne Hussey of The Mission for 6 weeks. He's a great friend & it was wonderful to be in his company. I do love touring the US, I'm happy to sit behind the wheel of a van for hours at a time, which is lucky 'cos that's how most days are spent. When we returned to the UK form that tour we finished the recording of 'Catching....' which was completed just before Christmas '08.

In January of this year we launched our 'Shared' project at Birmingham's Town Hall. 'Shared' is primarily an acoustic project. At that first show we invited Roddy Frame, Nick Heyward, Wayne Hussey & Katell Keineg to play acoustically with us. Everybody did short sets & the atmosphere was very informal & friendly. We went for something big like the Town Hall to affect as much attention as possible to the project. Since then we have recorded the first 'Shared' album, which I produced, and it works pretty much like an 'open mic' night we go to often at our local pub in Shropshire, The Horseshoe Inn. The album features the two of us, Wayne Hussey, Dirty Ray, Rob Dunsford, Timothy Parkes & Matthew Derrick - all people we have had the pleasure of playing with during our extensive touring - everybody contributing three songs each. The intention is to release a 'Shared' album every year & put on two or three special events around the releases. We did an open air show at The Horseshoe Inn in July to celebrate the first release & it was incredibly well attended, over 600 people. We will also do short 'Shared' tours with multi artist bills, beginning in Spring 2010.

The Wonder Stuff were pretty active during the last year too. We toured the UK to mark the 21st anniversary of the release of 'The Eight Legged Groove Machine' which we also rerecorded for a tour souvenir. We are currently doing the same with 'HUP' which we will tour next year. We headlined The Avalon Stage at Glastonbury Festival, as well as playing at Wychwood & Beautiful Days festivals. We even got to go back to play in Japan, which was amazing & ill hopefully be repeated in 2010.

The rest of this year sees Erica & I touring the UK with The Proclaimers & again with Wayne Hussey in Europe at the end of November. I love gigging so much, it gives you a certain feeling of job satisfaction. It's also wonderful to be 'independent' again. We plan all of our activities around having a good time, not around how to sell more records. The commercial aspect of what we do has never particularly interested me, it's about getting out of the house & making some noise.

As well as your music as a duo, you also make up part of The Wonderstuff. How are things in The Wonderstuff camp?

As I mentioned, it's been a good year for The Wonder Stuff. We are currently rerecording our second album 'HUP' to mark it's 21st anniversary & while we're doing that we're writing & demoing new songs, which will hopefully make for a new album at the tail end of 2010. For me, this is the best line up the band has ever had, we are all great friends & I think that's the first time I've been able to say that since our very early days back in '86 & '87.

What led to the revival of The Wonderstuff in 2000?

We thought that the 6 years away from each other had presented us with an opportunity to start afresh, to enjoy each others company again, we were wrong.

Is the Miles Hunt who revived The Wonder Stuff the same Miles Hunt who said goodbye to the band at The Phoenix Festival on 15 July 1994?

Of course not. In a fifteen year period like that, a person does a lot of growing, in any walk of life.

Now that The Wonder Stuff are back together can I get a refund on my “Created/Terminated” T-shirt as the date is now wrong?

Whataya think!....?

Many people will say that the last “real” Wonderstuff album was 1993’s “Construction for the Modern Idiot”. How does that make you feel considering the body of work that has followed, especially 2006’s “Suspended By Stars”?

I never did give a toss about what other people said or thought about my band. I have always done this to entertain myself. If other people enjoy what we do then that is a great bonus, if they don't then there is plenty of other stuff out there for them to listen to. 'Suspended By Stars' is a great record, possibly my favourite of all 6 TWS albums.

For someone reading this that was a Wonder Stuff fan but maybe was unaware of the new stuff how would you describe it to them?

Same old same old. Verses, choruses, guitars & violins. And some singing on the top.

There have been many stories about you hating your biggest hit “Size of a Cow” over the years. The “Never Loved Elvis” sleeve notes stated you never felt it was finished due to being interrupted by a phone call, did you really hate it that much? Is it still on the hated list?

I love 'The Size of a Cow', I don't necessarily need to hear or play it everyday, but it's a damn fine pop song.

Your skills as a wordsmith have often been the back bone to your music. Do you have any personal favourites from what you have written and why?

It's always the 'next one' with me. I love the creative process and I love having a task ahead of me. It's good to feel the muscles working.

How do The Wondersuff, Miles & Erica, and Miles Hunt co-exist? Do any take priority?

Luckily for both projects, likewise with 'Shared', they all happily co-exist. We do have to do a certain amount of forward thinking, to avoid not having enough time to see things through, but that gives me a good feeling, knowing that there is plenty more to be getting on with.

Now that your back on the road with Erica supporting The Proclaimers what can fans be expecting to hear in your sets?

Mostly songs from mine & Erica's last two albums & a peppering of TWS tunes, it'd be rude not to.

When The Proclaimers tour is over, what do you have up your sleeves next? Also how can people keep up with what you are up to?

Touring Europe with Wayne Hussey is next, that's in November & December. We'll also be finishing the rerecorded 'HUP' before Christmas & on December 17th The Wonder Stuff will be playing 'HUP' in it's entirety at a show in Birmingham, at the new 02 Academy. We will also be putting two 'Shared' stages on that night, featuring artists from the 'Shared' album & two very special guests.

Any final words...

I think that's enough, don't you?